


Seven Minutes in Heaven

by rainbowturtle2



Category: Persona 5
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:14:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24704383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbowturtle2/pseuds/rainbowturtle2
Summary: Ryuji and Akira ends up in a dark closet for a game of Seven Minutes in Heaven.Which is basically all Ryuji has wanted for the past four months he's known the nerd.Coincidentally, it's also all Akira has wanted for the past four months as well.
Relationships: Kurusu Akira/Sakamoto Ryuji
Comments: 2
Kudos: 116





	Seven Minutes in Heaven

**Author's Note:**

> This is for a friend fic exchange made by my bestest friend @certifries on ao3 and twitter. I love you and thank you for letting me join!

He doesn’t really believe in love at first sight.

No, Ryuji knows that love is something deep, something that takes work and effort. Love takes time and work to develop into the deep feeling he knows it is.

There are plenty of things he knows he loves; he loves fishing and finishing a physio appointment, he loves when his leg isn’t hurting and when a school day is over, he loves a good bowl of ramen, he loves his mum, and he loves Akira-

Actually, no, scratch that.

What he feels isn’t _love_.

He’s certain there hasn’t been enough _time_ for love to develop yet. He’s hardly known the nerd for a little over four months. Ryuji hasn’t put enough _time and effort_ into what relationship the two have for him to be as bold as to call it _love_.

What he feels towards Akira is simple; an infatuation at first sight. A crush, perhaps, at first sight. At second sight, too. At… at current sight.

Not something as big and scary as _love_.

It’s something small and easy to ignore for as long as he needs until the stupid butterflies in his stomach that makes him feel all jiterry leave so he can be _functional_. He doesn’t need to think about the way his unkempt hair frames his face just so, and how his eyes sparkles when-

“Earth to Ryuji?” he finally hears Akira say, and he blinks himself back to the current plane of existence. He blinks a couple times, then clears his throat. The dark room isn’t exactly kind in letting any details through, and when he looks at Akira he can make out exactly zero facial expression.

He can’t see the glasses on Akira’s face, he can’t make out the outline of the previously mentioned unkempt hair, nor can he see where Akira starts and the closet ends.

“Wh-” Ryuji says, then clears his throat and hopes it isn’t annoying Akira. He grins widely, his Ryuji ™ smile. “What’s up, man?”

Ryuji sees Akira’s head tilt slightly, he thinks, but he can’t make out the expressions on the face. Oh how he wishes he didn’t say yes to coming over to Ann’s.

“Did you hear what I said?” Akira says, the tone amused, but the words carefully weighed in his mouth before speaking. Ryuji shrugs with one shoulder, then shakes his head. It takes another few seconds before realising that if he can’t see Akira, Akira can’t see him.

“No?” Ryuji says, wishing he was anywhere but there. Maybe outside the closet, where he could hide his glances at Akira and pretend he pays attention to what anyone else says, like he usually does. Maybe outside the closet where he could have a genuine chance at making sure he wasn’t saying stupid shit that made Akira upset.

“I asked you what you wanted to do.” Akira repeats, but the words sound so unfamiliar and alien to his ears that he thinks Akira might as well have been speaking Spanish.

“Uh,” Ryuji knows he’s the most eloquent out of the Phantom Thieves, he just _knows_. “I think,” he says, looks off to the side with what he knows is the stupidest look on his face. “I want to sit down.”

Akira nods, at least that’s what Ryuji thinks he does, and sits down without a laugh. Ryuji stands still for another moment, waiting for Akira to tell him it’s a joke, and _how dumb you are for falling for it!_

When it doesn’t happen, he sits down in front of Akira. He hears Akira move a little, and feels something against his knee, a leg, he thinks. He hopes. Ryuji feels his face heat up a little when he realises how close Akira is to him, how he can actually smell the cologne Akira uses.

Ryuji feels his mouth dry up. He can’t believe his luck. Can he call it luck?

“Seven minutes here with me.” Akira says, and Ryuji can hear how amused he is through his voice. Ryuji just _knows_ there’s that smile on his face when he talks, like when he pretended Morgana was a plushie for that kid…

“Hah, I think you’ll find that it’s you who are stuck with me!” Ryuji says, then instantly feels stupid. He swallows thickly and fights every need to hit his head. Akira lets out a breath and Ryuji hopes it means a laugh. He’s instantly glad Akira can’t see his face, and how it heats up slightly at his embarrassment.

“You know what they’re expecting us to do.” Akira says, and Ryuji wishes the closet was just a _hint_ brighter. Just a hint so he could make out any features on Akira’s face to see if he’s making fun of him.

Instead, he shrugs with one shoulder.

“Yeah!” he says, more enthusiastic than he feels. “They want us to discuss the fishing trip we’re taking.”

He hears Akira’s mouth shut with a click of his teeth hitting his teeth.

“I’ve been studying my words and shit, so I _know_ this.” Ryuji says, braver than he feels.

“You…” Akira says, sounding incredulous. “You want to spend our seven minutes in Heaven… talking about fishing?”

Ryuji feels his face heat up and for the third time since sitting down there, he’s still grateful the room is too dark for either of them to make out any facial features. If the floor could grow a hole to make him slip down into and never face Akira again, that would’ve been great. Extremely welcome right now.

“You have a better idea, man?” Ryuji says, biting back the hope for the hole, tries to wipe the red off his cheeks with a hand as discreetly as he can, as if it’s of any help.

“I do, actually.” Akira says, then Ryuji feels his hand on his own hand, on top of his knee, where he had been trying to wipe sweat off his palm. He has no idea how Akira managed to find his hand with such pinpoint accuracy. Maybe he ate enough carrots as a child.

“Oh, so we’re going to talk about the Phantom Thieves? Man, we could do that in front of the others, it’s no big deal! They’re also a part of the Phantom Thieves, and I know I would’ve preferred it if we all could talk together-”

“Ryuji,” Akira says, interrupts the tirade. Ryuji shuts his mouth quietly. “I know you’re not stupid.”

“I- huh?” Ryuiji is quiet for a moment, bites his lip. He feels the tinge of sweet rejection from his chest. “Is this about Ake-”

“I know you’re not stupid,” Akira repeats, putting a bit more pressure on all the words. “So I know you know what I feel about you.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” Ryuji rubs two fingers over his eyebrow, his other hand feeling trapped under Akira’s on his knee. Akira silently waiting for a reply. He swallows thickly again and he looks to where he thinks the door might be. It’s not too far away, he could cut his losses now.

“So, do you want me to leave? I can totally leave. I mean, I get it, I feel that about me too, so…”

He can’t see the face Akira makes, but he hears the small “ _what_?” Akira breathes in confusion. The confusion from Akira makes him feel weird.

“Ryuji,” Akira says, and Ryuji wishes he could see the expression on his face just to know he isn’t messing with him, that he could at least face the nerd as he’s rejected. “I like you,” Akira says. Ryuji blinks twice. “I mean, shit, I think I might even love you?”

Ryuji doesn't know what to answer. Or even if he should. He’s not sure he trusts his voice to be even enough to answer. He opens his mouth, and makes a noise that cracks halfway through. Akira is quiet.

“Can I-” Ryuji says, scratches the back of his neck with his hand and then swallows thick. “Can I kiss you?” he asks, and he feels braver than he sounds.

He can’t see Akira, but he hears the smile over the other’s face.

“Yes,” Akira says, Ryuji can see the nod. He thinks. It might just be something he makes up. “Yes, I would love to kiss you.”

Both lean forwards, simultaneously in the darkness.

Both, simultaneously, misjudge the amount of space between them.

With a solid crack, Akira’s forehead hits Ryuji’s nose when they make contact, making Ryuji flinch back and letting out a louder ow than he intends to do. He reaches a hand up to his own nose to feel it, and it feels warm and wet.

“Shit,” Akira says, Ryuji can see he leans backwards and holds his hands out towards Ryuji. “Are you okay?”

Ryuji wipes under his nose with the back of his palm and winces. He pinches his nose and leans slightly forwards to stop the bleeding before he answers.

“Of course, bro!” he says, still pinching his nose. His voice sounds different from pinching his nose.

“Are…” Akira says, carefully, his hand finding Ryuji’s. “Are you having a nosebleed?”

Ryuji looks away to the side before looking back at Akira in the darkness. He hesitates for just that one moment too long, he realises, when Akira shifts. Ryuji moves his head ever so slightly in a nod he knows Akira won’t even see.

Akira takes his hand back, and Ryuji _thinks_ he can see the other’s shoulders deflate and he hears a sigh.

“That’s not how I imagined this.” he sounds exhausted. Ryuji tries looking at him, but the darkness is relentless.

“Imagined this?” Ryuji asks, then sees Akira turn his head to the side. He thinks, at least, that he’s turning his head. The sound of shifting and the chance of shadows against shadows could be him moving his head.

“Of course I’ve been imagining this,” Akira says, turning his head slowly back towards Ryuji. “But it’s usually been brighter and not in a closet, and much less…” Ryuji thinks he sees a hand motion to his nose. “Bloody.”

Ryuji lets out a laugh.

“It’ll be one hell of a story to tell, huh?” he grins and lets go of his nose to see if the bleeding has stopped. He wipes under his nose with the back of his hand and doesn’t feel any fresh blood. “I-” “You confessed your eternal love to me!” Ryuji says, with a flair, mouth in a toothy grin. “And the intense emotions that awoke in me brought out a nosebleed!”

Akira lets out another breath Ryuji hopes is a laugh. He really likes making Akira laugh.

“It’s like in those old anime, you remember those? Where one of the characters would have a nosebleed when-”

“Are you calling yourself an old anime pervert?” Akira asks, Ryuji lets out a noise, puts his other hand on his chest to feign hurt. And then there is a loud knock on the closet door, before the closet fills with too bright light from the door being harshly flung open.

“Hey,” Ann says. “Are you two-” she stops herself when she spots the blood on Ryuji’s shirt and him pinching his own nose. “What the hell happened to you?” she asks, rolls her eyes at the look.

Ryuji shrugs with one shoulder when he looks at her, then he glances over at Akira. A soft smile over his lips before he answers.

“Well, he headbutted me,” Ryuji says, making Akira snap his head towards Ryuji. “So now we’re together.” Ann gives him an unamused look, then she gives Akira an expectant look.

“That’s-” Akira starts, protesting. “That’s not what happened.” he deflates slightly as his sentence progresses.

“Then what-” Ann starts, then stops herself. She holds her hands up as if to stop any explanation. She sighs deeply. “I don’t actually care. I’ll give you another seven minutes.”

She closes the door again, and leaves them in the almost genuine solitude of the closet.

“So,” Akira says, making Ryuji turn to look at him. “Do you wanna try again?”

**Author's Note:**

> i know that they didn't actually kiss in the fic but emotionally they did.


End file.
